DIY Animals and Cars Baby's Nursery and Baby Essentials

We finally finished the nursery!  During the last few months of my pregnancy, I decided to make some things for my baby boy.  To be honest, these projects were my "nesting" activities so I went a little overboard, lol. I fell absolutely in love with the cutest nursery fabric called "Animals in Cars" from Joann's Fabric!  So I decorated my baby boy's nursery and made baby essentials coordinating with the animals and cars nursery fabric theme. I was able to find many things from thrift shops for cute decorations such shelves, hooks, pillows, picture frames, his dresser, and chair.  In addition, the nursery essentials and decorations were made by doing several DIY projects that I found on Pinterest. With help from my awesome sister in-law Marilee, we made some incredible baby stuff for my baby boy (beach balls, crinkle baby tag blankets, and a baby blanket)! I also made pillows, bibs, burp rags, receiving blanket and an owl, clouds, and hot air balloon baby mobile!

I Spy Quilt (Animals in Cars and Tools)
We were inspired by Obsessively Stitching Blog to make an I Spy Quilt!  We made our patches 5X5 instead of 4X4. My blanket turned out to be the size of the crib and perfect for baby to play on the floor!

The Baby Pillows

I found pillows and stuffing from a local thrift store for my stuffing, which is a total money saver compared to buying it bulk at the store. I used the following tutorial and template: How to Sew The Slip Stitch and Owl Plushie Template.

Baby Mobile
I was inspired by Craftiness is not Optional to make our own DIY baby mobile.  I hand stitched felt owls, clouds, and hot air balloons by using embroidery thread. I even stuffed them with fiberfill.  I used the following templates: Owl Templates and Hot Air Balloons and Clouds Templates.

Garland
Instead of a curtain or valence, I decided to hang a garland/pennet above the window and below the picture frames or shelves! Here is where I got the Template and Tutorial.

Wall and Shelf  Picture Frames

Boy Subway Art is from Simple Scrapper.
 Button "Z" Wall Art- I glued on tons of buttons that matched his room.
Free vintage owl, elephant, and monkey printables are from Hand Made Home

 Nursery fabric wall art on canvas- I was inspired by Blue Cricket Design
I spray painted a plain picture frame to a blue color and a chalk board to green.
Book Shelves
I bought a couple spice racks from Ikea and spray painted them green, blue, and orange. I bought all the shelves from a thrift store. By the way, the white clock is from Ikea.

"Z "book shelf  decoration (I bought the cardboard Z from a craft store and used Mod Podge to stick the fabric over the letter Z).

Crinkle Baby Tag Blankets 

I used the following tutorial Baby Tag Blanket Tutorial and 8X8 template.

Fabric Beach Balls
 Templates and tutorial are from The Purl Bee.

Car Seat Cover

The matching car seat cover was made by one of my daughter's friends, which happened to be made out of the same fabric we used. It is a perfect car seat cover for on the go!

Receiving Blanket 
I made a rounded  receiving blanket following this tutorial: Receiving Blanket Tutorial. I use this blanket in my baby's car seat!

Burp Clothes and Bibs 
Burp Clothe Tutorial is from Cloud Nine Fabrics
Chenille Bib Tutorial and Template
Bib Tutorial and Template

I'm pleased with my several sewing projects even though they are flawed or not perfect after all I am just a newbie learning how to sew! I look forward to making some other new cute things in the future!

Family of Five Plus Dog Photo Shoot

Since we are now a family of five and have an almost two year old bichon frise poodle mix dog, we felt it was time to get some updated family photographs. Our oldest daughter has a friend who is aspiring to be photographer someday so we gave her the opportunity to take our pictures. We decided on a navy blue, white, grey, and teal color pallet for our photo shoot. We picked a perfect spot to do the photo shoot at Kiwanis Park near Battle Creek Trail head in Pleasant Grove, Utah.

 It was a lovely autumn afternoon! The leaves were absolutely gorgeous with the sun shining above us! I love glow of the sun light that is seen in some of these photographs!

The pictures turned out great even though little brother was not very photogenic that day and became grumpy at the end while Jagger (our dog) would sometimes not look at the photographer while she took the photographs.

My three little Monsters

On October 30, 2013, we made some spooky food since John had to work and big sis had a party on Halloween.  Big sister was in charge of dinner. She made mummy hot dogs, ghost bananas, orange slices, veggies, and ranch dip.  For dessert, we bought a pumpkin and cheese cake roll and made witch hats out of cookies, kisses, and clear frosting from a tube. During that same evening, John made a killer spicy hot chili for his work contest! In fact, he won first place in the chili contest and received $50 dollars for his prize, woohoo! As for our Halloween costumes, John and I were super Dad and Mom, big sister was the famous classy Audrey Hepburn from Breakfast and Tiffany's, little sis was cute bat, and little brother was an awesome skeleton.  We either bought things from the Dollar Store or thrift stores. Some things were hand me downs from a friend. The kids and I went trick or treating at my husband's work instead of walking around the neighborhoods.  They got plenty of candy from John's work and corn dogs from Sonic! Little sister, little brother, and I watched some Halloween movies after trick or treating!  What fun Halloween memories we made this year!

John and I basically wore clothes from our closets expect for my blue tutu was homemade.  For our accessories, we used things around the house such as belts, diapers, pacifiers, receiving blankets (capes), and made a holster out of foam for the bottles (just stapled it together) !  We bought the bottles, glasses, and foam paper from the dollar store. We got the super hero printables from Super Dad and Super Mom and paste them on the foam material.

The pretty Audrey Hepburn costume included the following: an elegant black dress with fake diamonds, black heels, and gloves were from a thrift shop.  She borrowed the earrings, and necklaces from me. Her hair and make were done by her friend.

As for the bat girl costume, it was all homemade by my friend who no longer needed it. It included the following  bat wings, ears (hat), and eye mask. Her black nails, hair, and make up was done by me. She wore a black shirt, sweats, witch headband from a thrift store, and carried a bouncy bat decoration toy.

Lastly, little brother wore a skeleton outfit for his first Halloween costume, which was given to us by a friend. We bought a black winter hat and sock shoes from Old Navy.